Search continues for Wisconsin man believed drowned in Kennebec River

Maine Marine Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard boats and personnel searching the Kennebec River on April 19, the day after David Dieterich slipped and fell into the river. Times Record photo by Darcie Moore

BATH — Bath police said Wednesday that a Wisconsin man who slipped from a dock into the Kennebec River last week has still not been found.

David Dieterich, 35, of Caledonia, Wisconsin was with two work colleagues when he stepped onto an unstable dock near the Kennebec Tavern and fell into the river shortly before 10 p.m. April 18. He’d recently arrived in Bath as an employee of the Milwaukee-based Marshall Erecting, a subcontractor for Bath Iron Works. He was staying at the Hampton Inn while on a temporary assignment that his family said was to last approximately six weeks.

Maine Marine Patrol, aided early in the search by the U.S. Coast Guard, Maine State Police and local police and fire department personnel, continues to search. The search effort has included the state police divers and technology including drones, a submersible remote operated vehicle. A Marine Patrol pilot has searched by air.

“The plan is to continue to search on the water through the weekend and by plane through Friday, weather permitting,” said Jeff Nichols, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Marine Resources.